1st Gen R53 Cooper S Engine Died - Now it won't start!

Hi everyone.

So last week I was sitting at some lights in my (2004 pre facelift) R53, (engine idling) when suddenly the engine died. There were no engine warning lights or any form of warning, and I would liken the engine behaviour to that you would experience when running out of fuel (for the record the tank was nearly full). After that the engine would turn over but not restart, and the car had to be recovered.

I have done a fair amount of work on it, so I will list what I have done below:

- checked for a spark (held plug against engine mount)
- replaced the plugs for new ones
- tested a known good coil
- turned over and removed a couple of the plugs straight away - they were wet with fuel
- removed intake system up to throttle body in case of blockage
- replaced crank position sensor with known good one
- read fault codes using INPA, no codes stored in DME

The fuel pump does prime as normal. I got a pressure tester and the pressure at the fuel rail is 55 psi consistent both when priming and cranking.

I removed the fuel rail and left it all plugged in with the injectors pointing out so that I could see whether or not they were injecting. Interestingly each injector fires once after trying to start (directly after priming) and then if I keep cranking the engine there is no more injection. Would we expect the injectors to keep actuating in this situation?

I have just ordered a compression tester just in case of the worst, not sure if there's much point though as surely you'd get firing on at least some cylinders? And maybe a fault code?

Running out of ideas really, and advice would be most welcome.

Best,

Mike

 

Hi everyone,

Thank you for the warm welcome, what a friendly bunch!

First of all to answer the geographic question - I am posting from the UK, around 15 miles from Oxford actually!

In terms of the car, I'll try and give a bit more clarity on the situation as it stands:

- I have confirmed that the coil is good by replacing it with a known good coil from a friends car

- I have checked for a spark by holding one of the plugs to the engine mount and turning the engine over. The spark looked healthy. Is this an acceptable way of testing this?

- I had discounted the fuel filter on the basis that the fuel pressure remains at a consistent 55psi even when cranking - does this seem reasonable/logical?

- All four injectors actuate on the first turn of the key once the fuel pump had primed. However if I continue to turn the engine over on the starter motor there is no more injection. Does this sound normal? I imagined they would continue injecting as the engine is turned??

- The coil is OEM

- There were no strange noises when it died, the engine speed fluctuated for a couple of seconds and then it stopped. Just like running out of fuel I think.

I will check compression tomorrow as suggested.

It has been suggested to me that the timing could have jumped a tooth. Is this a known phenomenon on these engines?

Any more help would be most welcome, particularly concerning the injection behaviour!

Mike

 

Hi everyone, thanks for the replies.
@Batrugger - interesting information on the injector behaviour in your car, this is definitely quite different to the behaviour of mine. I wondered if was some kind of anti-flooding mechanism but it doesnt seem logical to me, to not supply fuel at all when cranking after only one round of injection.

Will post compression test results when I do it later.

The battery is old, not sure how old but not new! I dont think it is the original though. It had more or less run flat from the number of times I tried to start the car, so I got another car and connected it up to effectively jump start it. However, if you say they do weird things with old batteries, is it possible this could still be a cause even with another car jumping it?

I have inspected the timinig chain already and it looks normal, chain doesn't appear loose or anything.

So list of jobs as it stands:

- Compression test
- Measure voltage drop on injectors to see if the ECU is actuating them when cranking
- Close inspection of chain drive/timing
- Squirt easy start in the bores and see if there's any sign of life
- Check earths

Any other suggestions?

Cheers

 

Hello guys. Thanks for all your help so far. Bit more progress yesterday - I carried out a compression test, cylinder 1 was good with around 150psi, but cylinders 2, 3 and 4 all have zero compression.

Three cylinders having no compression sounds a lot like my timing chain has jumped a tooth - I wasnt able to check the timing marks last night but at the weekend i will do this. If it was a head gasket, for 3 cylinders to have no compression I imagine it would have to be a pretty catastrophic failure and I would have imagined I'd have experienced smoke/steam and seen evidence of oil in coolant etc. Seem logical?

As I say I will check timing etc at the weekend and report back after that